To connect and flow in Seoul: Ubiquitous technologies, urban infrastructure and everyday life in the contemporary Korean city
(2008) To connect and flow in Seoul: Ubiquitous technologies, urban infrastructure and everyday life in the contemporary Korean city , in Foth, Marcus, Eds. Handbook of Research on Urban Informatics: The Practice and Promise of the Real-Time City, chapter 2. IGI Global.
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Abstract
Once a city shaped by the boundary conditions of heavy industrialisation and cheap labour, within a few years Seoul has transformed itself to one of the most connected and creative metropolises in the world, under the influence of a new set of postindustrial prerogatives: consumer choice, instantaneous access to information, and new demands for leisure, luxury, and ecological wholeness. The Korean capital stands out for its spatiotemporally compressed infrastructural development, particularly in the domain of urban informatics. This chapter explores some implications of this compression in relation to Seoulites’ strong desire for perpetual connection, a desire that is realised and reproduced through ubiquitous technologies connecting individuals both with one another and with the urban environment itself. We use the heavily managed urban creek Cheonggyecheon as a metaphor for the technosocial milieu of contemporary Seoul, paying particular attention to what its development might signify for Seoulites both as a constituent node of the city and as an outcropping of networked information technology. We first describe some of the historic, social and economic contexts in which the Cheonggyecheon project is embedded, then proceed to discuss the most pertinent facets of Korean-style everyday informatics engaged by it: ubiquity; control and overspill; government-industry collaboration; lifestyle choice; and condensed development timelines.
| Item Type: | Book Chapter |
|---|---|
| Status: | In Press |
| Place of Publication: | Hershey, PA |
| Keywords: | urban informatics; Seoul; Korea; ubiquitous computing |
| Subjects: | 370000 Studies in Human Society > 370100 Sociology > 370104 Urban Sociology and Community Studies 420000 Language and Culture > 420300 Cultural Studies > 420307 Consumption and Everyday Life 370000 Studies in Human Society > 370600 History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine > 370602 Sociology and Social Studies of Science and Technology 370000 Studies in Human Society > 370400 Human Geography > 370401 Urban and Regional Studies |
| ID Code: | 14105 |
| Deposited By: | Choi, Jaz Hee-jeong |
| Deposited On: | 18 July 2008 |
| Alternative Locations: | http://www.igi-global.com/reference/details.asp?id=8367 |
| Copyright Owner: | Copyright 2008 IGI Global |
| Additional Information: | Access to the author-version is currently restricted pending permission from the publisher. For more information, please refer to the publisher's website (see hypertext link) or contact the author. |